Saturday 25 April 2015

Imminent Arrival

So it's been a while again, mainly due to being crazily busy followed by even crazier exhaustion! But I thought I'd update where we are now.

The impending arrival of a newborn is such a turbulent time emotionally. You are desperate to meet this little person who has been growing inside you for the last nine months. Especially as for the last few weeks it's been giving you the kind of hefty kicks that remind you of its presence on a regular basis. You are extremely fat and uncomfortable (and need to wee every ten minutes. Seriously.). You are excited to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

But on the other hand there is a sense of trepidation. Admittedly not so much as the first time - you just don't have the time to dwell when you are trying to entertain a toddler all day! But part of you is thinking - will this be alright? Will I cope with labour? Will there be complications? It's something you can't avoid - childbirth is such a momentous event. It probably doesn't help that in my history teacher capacity I have taught a Medivine Through Time course that highlights the stark realities of childbirth and the survival rates up until about a hundred years ago. It makes you all the more appreciative of modern medical advances, and more inclined to scoff at people who go on about the superiority of natural childbirth etc - that would be the nature where 1 in 4 mothers and 1 in 5 infants died would it?

I am prepared to do everything I can to get this little one here safely, and certainly wouldn't rule out any intervention or pain relief I felt necessary. This is probably why I have no birth plan. I don't really think it's something that can be planned for and it feels like setting yourself up to fail. I'm going to go with the flow.

After that outpouring of my thoughts, I thought I'd share some other goings on in our lives.

We have been...

...walking in the memorial park...

...visiting open gardens and finding some fantastic sticks to play with courtesy of Gramps...

...visiting the garden centre and getting excited by fake chickens in the hen houses...

...and then getting to look after real chicks for the weekend, after they hatched in Ed's classroom at school!

We have also been to soft play (he loves these cars so much!).

And I've managed to do a bit of hooking on my ripple blanket in the evenings when I'm not completely shattered from the day's activities!

So to sum up: it's been busy, I'm tired, the baby will be arriving soon by whatever means necessary. And hopefully we have a lovely summer to look forward to as a family of four...